What “building in public” really means

Over 56,000 technology companies were registered in the UK during 2025, a 17% increase from 2024’s figures, and a nearly 50% increase compared to 2020. More startups means more noise – more people and company pages competing to catch and retain attention.

This is showing no signs of slowing down, with 36% of working-age adults either running their own business or planning to start one within the next three years, according to research conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2024-2025 UK report. Within this continually increasing market size, how should startups and small businesses best manage their marketing and communications?

This is where the term “Building in Public” (BIP) comes into play.

Defining BIP

BIP is the intentional documenting and sharing of a journey, story, or process with the world. For startups, it’s focused on how they can create a scalable, genuine, and open brand, which evolves alongside their idea and/or business.

This doesn’t mean a startup positioning itself as ‘perfect’, or that it has everything figured out; it’s about reflecting the growth in real time. Visualise it as a scrum or an iterative cycle, where each loop is refining a marketing plan, the vision for the business and how that’s being shared with the outside world.

At its core, it’s about being human. When starting a new project or idea, it’s natural for people to make mistakes, to have slightly misjudged something, or to be pleasantly surprised by how something is received by a supplier or customer.

BIP takes into account how these scenarios are broken down and shared with the outside world.

The case for BIP

Social media platforms have become an integral part of the majority of people’s lives, since their initial roll-out in the mid-late 1990s. These platforms have reimagined how a lot of people work, communicate, learn, and socialise. When looking at the marketing and communications industry, they have created this entire other world of potential, connection, and creativity.

However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to “stand out” from the crowd, which is a challenge for businesses of all sizes. This is particularly poignant for startups and smaller-scale organisations, who may not have the budget or capacity to compete with the larger players in the field.

This highlights the case for BIP, or in other words, how a founder can leverage their and their business’s story to connect with their audience, raise awareness of the work that they do and grow as a community, not solely as an isolated entity.

Clear for Men

When it comes to how BIP can be applied in practice, let’s use a case study of Louis Watkins, the Newport-based Founder of Clear for Men, a men’s skincare brand, with a specific focus on raising male mental health awareness through skincare and wellbeing. While this isn’t a technology-focused example, there are a lot of lessons that can be taken and applied from how he manages his marketing.

His business was chosen for this, as it’s a great example of how a startup can manage its marketing cross-platform, instead of this article purely focusing on one platform.

Louis is someone who’s very open and honest about his mental health journey, which formed the cornerstone of his brand. Clear for Men is a daily reminder for men to take a moment for themselves each day to reflect, be present, and to remember that, no matter what happens in life, they’re not alone.

Applying BIP – Clear for Men

Louis currently operates his marketing function himself, and primarily runs the social media accounts for the business through LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. While only Louis knows the full vision behind his marketing plan, he repurposes content across each channel to best resonate with his audience, tone of voice and the stylistic preferences required.

Through a BIP lens, all of his content does form around a more personal angle; however, that’s not to say that for other businesses, this level of openness is essential.

To be temporarily more platform-specific, across Instagram, he’s managing this balance particularly well. He has his own personal account and one for the business. The content shared across these accounts has similarities; however, there is a clear distinction between the founder and the business.

Each of these profiles is working towards the same end goal, and they provide an interesting case for how BIP can operate across personal and business identities. This shows how the concept doesn’t have to exist in just one place; it can exist across multiple “voices” or touchpoints – as long as the story is coherent.

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Louis has been documenting his journey since he first started the business, sharing the highs, lows, and reality of being a business owner in 2026. Sometimes things are going well, and the business is earning awards, sometimes things aren’t going exactly to plan – all of which is documented and forms a part of his and his business’s journey.

Applying BIP sustainably

The point about the journey is particularly relevant when discussing BIP. It’s not solely about short-term visibility; it’s more so a presence or a brand that has gained familiarity and confidence over time. It’s about creating a connection with people by treating them as real people, and sharing content consistently and meaningfully that adds value to their lives.

What businesses and people like Louis have, and continue to do, is make it easier for consumers and prospects to know who they are buying from.

If they’ve been following their respective journey from the start, then that’s a relationship or a familiarity that has been built perhaps across years – even if they have only recently come across the business, there’s the paper trail, the background information there, if that’s what they are looking for.

What BIP really means

BIP is a fascinating area of marketing to explore, especially as it can be understood, applied, and tested in such a large number of ways. It’s a practice focused on sustainable growth, brand-building, and how familiarity converts unknown prospects to trusted customers.

As social media platforms continue to surge in popularity, owning a story, whether that’s solely on one profile or spread across several, is a great way to distinguish oneself from the competition. To leverage stories, personalities, platforms, and more to drive growth, creating lasting relationships, and resonating with an audience.

To put it plainly, it’s not always about being the “best”; it’s about being you.